Farm bankruptcies jumped 20% in 2019, even with billions in aid from U.S.

SSgt Ray Stone - Where are your facts...experience is verifiable. I have lived it all over the U.S. Find the same information from another source to support your argument...one source and especially the Clinton Broadcasting Service or the Chinese Broadcasting service (CBS) and I might be inclined to give it some merit. One source does not make an argument/case.

I have lived in various farming communities in South Miss, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, ans now in North Miss. Because of my farming background when I enlisted everywhere I have lived I have engaged with farmers in their community (chose to live in the rural areas and commute to work...hunted on their lands...assisted them in my time off) because we had similar backgrounds...and the stories are the same of what I mentioned above. One in anomaly...two is a trend. Bankrupticies don't just come on suddenly...they are from years of boom and bust, which most farmers are used to. One bad year of weather, trade agreements, regulations on chemicals from one year to the next driving prices through the roof can set a farmer back and it may take years to recover...but some can't. My inlaws (and a multitude of farmers in our state) in the past two years have been the recipient of Pres Trumps farm assistance and I can say unequivocally had it not been for that some of those programs, they might have stopped farming and that would be a shame. Obama and even Bush did nothing or very little for the American farmer. Some of this aid just came too late to save the farm...debts from years in the making.

Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth - Your experience is your experience. Just because the few farmers you know are doing well does not negate the fact that dumb Donald's tariffs war bankrupted a GREAT deal of farmers which increased the price of food and passing the expense to tax payers. Farmers are also committing suicide, dairy farmers to be exact. HE BAILED THEM OUT TWICE ( Socialism) which is what you maga haters are adamantly against, but when it benefits you all it's accepted. Point to where in the article as you MAGA supporters say is FAKE NEWS and I will delete it. I'll be waiting lol

Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth - Still waiting

SSgt Ray Stone - "Last year's 20% spike lags only the 33% surge seen in 2010, the year after the recession, the bureau found in its search of a decade of bankruptcy data from U.S. courts." Let's see...who was president in 2010...and had been for two years...HMMMMMMM.
As I stated before bankrutpcies don't happen overnight "The most recent rise in farm bankruptcies was to be expected, the bureau said in its findings, citing factors including a multi-year downturn in the farm economy, record amounts of farm debt, and headwinds on the trade front." People taking in more debt trying to keep the farms alive but after previous admins farm policies time catches up with them. It is multiple factors to include weather and policies. Has Trump policies hurt American Farmers some but they were in trouble long before he came along. Democrats (like Bloomberg for example with his ignorant self stated what is farming, you dig dirt, plant a seed, and water it...well that might work in your backyard garden in New York buddy but there is more to it than that...they don't need to be so damn ignorant.
Govt policy has everything to do with dairy farmers situations. I personally know know small dairy farmers who have been put out of business because of deregulation from previous admins that allowed major corporations to take over the dairy farms creating mega dairies gaining monopoly's putting them out of business thus driving suicide rates up. Keep cutting on hard working American Farmers and let's see where the prices go a the supermarket...bet you will be screaming then when you have to pay $6 a gallon for milk for example

SSgt Ray Stone - You are right, your opinion most certainly is not factual. I am a farmer. I consult with farmers on increasing yield, improving sustainability, and improving profitability. My social circle is mostly farmers. What are your bona fides for your opinion? An informed opinion of someone in the field beats an uninformed opinion of a guy who read an article.

The original intent of U.S. farm subsidies was to provide economic stability to farmers during the Great Depression to ensure a steady domestic food supply for Americans. If you doubt my word look at the debates when the first farm subsidies were authorized in the 30's. Also look up a program called the Conservation Reserve Program where farmer's are paid to NOT put arable land under the plow for environmental reasons and price stabilization.

According to the USDA roughly 916 million acres of American land are currently farmed. Another 868 acres of undeveloped high value agriculture acreage lies fallow. About 35% of that land is used to produce food for human consumption, or to produce feed for animals that will be consumed by humans. So roughly 320 million acres feed the population of the US and another 236 million people world wide.
Slightly less than 40% of the food produced for human consumption is:
_not harvested due to market conditions, or
_not used as feed for livestock, or
_spoils in in the food distribution pipeline (the vas majority is still edible, but rejected for cosmetic reasons), or
_is thrown away after being prepared, but not consumed by the household due to spoilage
_another 14% edible food is thrown away by commercial food establishments or food processing plants because of government regulations
That means we could feed slightly more than a billion without putting one more acre under the plow or hoof. If we used the undeveloped prime arable land and put it all into food production we could feed another 3 billion people 2800Kcals per day.

Now what have you got to refute me?

SGT Steve McFarland - What's true for grain farmers in Oklahoma, may not be true for Cherry Farmer's in Michigan. I farm and active in all the grange halls in a 30 mile radius. Most American farms (not the same as most acres farmed) aren't big enough to get a second look or a return phone call from a contract harvester. Plus their crop may have a small window of opportunity for optimal harvest conditions. I know peach farmers who track the sugar content in their peaches by the hour to determine what day and what time of day to start their harvest.

And there is so much more capital equipment to farming than a combine or a tractor. If I had to replace my milk carousel, milkers, milk sanitation, and milk storage equipment, used equipment in need of repair would still take $200k -$300k and I'm small time. But many farmers are finding that they've had enough of being shorn by the wholesalers. I'm vertically integrated into every aspect from the goat eating her browse to putting the cheese into delis and restaurants. If I didn't do that everybody's cut along the way would keep me in the poor house.

At the grange hall we all know the farmers going belly up in the next bust cycle. They get a new truck halfway through paying off the first one because they had a great year. My oldest piece of farm equipment is a 70+ year old tractor, the newest is my 22 year old ford 3/4 ton pickup truck. If I need something I can fabricate myself, I do.

Maj John Bell - Your experience is your experience. Just because the few farmers you know are doing well does not negate the fact that dumb Donald's tariffs war bankrupted a GREAT deal of farmers which increased the price of food and passing the expense to tax payers. Farmers are also committing suicide, dairy farmers to be exact. HE BAILED THEM OUT TWICE ( Socialism) which is what you maga haters are adamantly against, but when it benefits you all it's accepted. Point to where in the article as you MAGA supporters say is FAKE NEWS and I will delete it. I'll be waiting lol

SSgt Ray Stone - Fake News
Fake news #1: Commodity farmers, like soybean farmers, produce on futures contracts. They know what they are going to get paid before the seed hits the soil. All the claims that the farmers are getting destroyed by tariffs is BS. If the soybean market isn't good, they plant something else. Futures speculators are the ones hurt by unanticipated market forces. Most futures speculators don't know where to put the fuel in the tractor, let alone farm acreage and produce an abundant harvest

Fake news #2 The US is far and away the largest exporter of soy beans (they're used as livestock feed.) Some the net exporters of Soy Beans actually import some US soybeans. Why? Because they have a raft of problems with distribution, spoilage, and corruption.

The article you chose provides some clues if you know enough about farming. "The most recent rise in farm bankruptcies was to be expected, the bureau said in its findings, citing factors including a multi-year downturn in the farm economy, record amounts of farm debt, and headwinds on the trade front." What caused the downturn in the farm economy? Talk to John Locke. It is the law of supply and demand. New cultivars of soy have increased crop yields by 8%-12% More supply means less competition to buy, means lower prices, means farmers on the margin cannot service their "RECORD LEVELS OF FARM DEBT." Headwinds on the trade front is a BS phrase. If livestock farmers think soy prices are to high, their next best feed conversion source is corn. Guess who is far and away the world's largest corn producer. Fields suitable for soy are just as suitable for corn. In addition The US corn Market, unaffected by trade war tariffs, does a good job of taking up the excess supply for ethanol to mix in your gasoline.

The farms that are failing are farms with marginal/questionable profit margins because AS YOUR ARTICLE STATES, they cannot service their farm debt. Marginal farmers are the victims of the overall success and productivity of American farming, that produces more food than we consume; AND poor capital equipment financing strategies.

I'm sorry but you have no idea how much you don't know about farming and farm economics. Your expertise is as broad and deep as the handful of articles you've read. You don't even have the knowledge to pick up the clues in the articles you read. Trying to explain it to you is like trying to teach differential equations to a horse.

Bingo

They have helped all the family farms in the state of Miss. I have in laws still farming and various cousins all over the state and the aid couldn't have come at a better time. Maybe he did help the big farms but he also helped the small ones. Bankruptcies don't just come on...this is from years of not getting any assistance in regulations, trade, etc. from Obama or Bush or even Clinton for that matter.